All Over Oregon!

Hello Again!

We spent about three weeks in Oregon and have since moved to other states. We have a lot of catching up to do on blogging our travels! Many of our recent locations had no internet or cell service. While this creates an excellent environment for quality downtime and taking in an abundance of nature, it makes getting almost anything accomplished very difficult!

There is no mistaking Oregon's natural beauty; there are over 350 miles of the most beautiful beaches we've ever seen. And because Oregon has a similar climate zone as Italy and France, the state is literally blooming everywhere with lush greenery and massive flowers of all varieties. Flourishing foliage to the extent that Portland has been known as the City of Roses for more than 100 years.

Oregon also has an impressive population of sea lions along many beaches, which was a lot of fun to watch until we noticed that sea lions are mean! The males are especially territorial. In our video below, we've included a few rounds of King of the Mountain, as played out by the territorial male sea lions. No matter where we observed them, they constantly fight for space and bark aggressively each time another male sea lion comes too close.  

Our son, Curtis, met us in Portland the day after we arrived in Oregon. How happy we were to see him! After picking him up, we spent the day checking out the city. From our observation, it appears the City of Roses is overrun with thorns of all varieties and could use some pruning. Suffice to say it's the least inspiring and most depressing place we've seen in America. Oregon is beautiful, but this state has its share of challenges.

After Curtis left us, we went directly towards Craig's Aunt Polly's hometown, in Blodgett (population 58!). Aunt Polly is so full of energy, life, and fun. She's much like a real-life like Mary Poppins or Amelia Bedelia. It was great to see her! 

While here, we also stayed in the quaint town of Bend and visited Crater Lake National Park. After traveling south on Route 101 and staying in Newport and Coos Bay's coastal towns, we entered California to visit Redwood National Forest. We visited the forest but only stayed in California for three nights. The wildfires burning in the northern part of the state prevented us from going further south. This was disappointing for many reasons; we are so sorry for the human lives, wildlife and property lost, and other devastation out here due to the fires. We were also disappointed because we were looking forward to visiting our nephew, Colin, on our next stop. 

We'll share our pictures from the Redwood Forest and our alternate travel route in our next post, since traveling down the California coast is not an option. The smoke is widespread. We are out of the way of most of it now, but some days are worse than others as the winds continue to blow smoke throughout the west. Please keep all the folks out here in your prayers. We have met people who had to leave their homes due to the fires. We’ve had a unique opportunity to travel all over America while so much is going on in America. Keep our country in your prayers—such a beautiful place with so many wonderful people. 

As the time to head home is nearing, we increasingly appreciate every moment we are out here. Simultaneously, we are excited to return home in six weeks and be close to family and friends again! We think and talk about you all often! We hope you enjoy the pictures of all the natural beauty of Oregon. See you soon!! 💗

Yay! Curtis is here! There was nothing better than getting to hug our oldest son after not seeing him in months!

In Portland, we happened upon Burnside Skatepark, a famous skater-made park that began in 1990 with kids pouring spare bags of concrete under Burnside Bridge. Resourceful skateboarders struck up a deal with a local construction company for donated concrete, causing the project to explode with more vertical ramps and bowls—all poured without the city's permission. Portland still does not contribute any funds to the free-admission park, but now accepts the skater-made and maintained project as a public park. The hundreds of concrete public skate parks seen across America today are credited to the ingenuity of Burnside Skatepark's creators. Curtis spent most of his teen years skateboarding and immediately recognized the famous spot, as shown in skateboard media and video games. He was thrilled to be there in person, and we enjoyed watching for a while.

At Cannon Beach, we saw our first haystack rock out in the water. While this may be a familiar scene on the west coast, we were pretty impressed! We had lunch at a brewery that was also a hardware store, thus their name, Screw and Brew. They actually had a sign saying if your dog digs a hole under the picnic table, you will be charged for a bag of soil!

Since Cannon Beach was surprisingly warm, we assumed Pacific City Beach, about 75 miles south, would be as well. It was not. We were pretty cold but determined a beach day is a beach day, and as we say, "A freezing day at the beach is better than a good day at work!”

At Pacific City Beach, the rocks and sand dunes were the biggest we’d seen. Craig and Curtis climbed up the dune to look out over the ocean. Craig took this photo looking north up the coast. The scene of people going up and down the enormous dune was like watching a human ant hill.

Oregon flowers of all varieties bloom as large as your head.

Camping in the woods is the best. And even better with the ones you love. At this stop, near the Colombia River Gorge, we enjoyed a good dinner and playing cards by lantern-light under the stars.

Craig and Curtis hiked near the Columbia River Gorge. The Gorge runs between the state borders of Washington (on the left) and Oregon (on the right).

Before we knew it, it was time for Curtis to go home. We hated to see him go and enjoyed having him with us up to the very last minute.

Another one of Craig’s pictures of the Colombia River Gorge. From this view, Oregon is on the left and Washington is on the right.

At Silver Falls State Park in Sublimity, OR, Craig and Aunt Polly hiked the breathtaking 7.2-mile hike around the Trail of Ten Falls. At this fall, the trail bends behind the water. If you look closely, you can appreciate the size of this spectacular scene by noting the people under the falls, to the left.

After their hike, we enjoyed a delicious picnic lunch Aunt Polly packed for us.

Visiting Polly’s peaceful, lush 11 acres, and her husband, Rick, was a real treat.

Devil’s Punchbowl State Natural Area in Otter Rock got its name from the swirling churn of the sea as wanves fill the rocky bowl like a witch’s brew. Waves enter the bowl through openings in the base and often violently churn, swirl, and foam. The bowl is thought to have been created when two caves carved by the ocean, collapsed. During low tide, as it was the day we visited, many people walk around inside the bowl.

We’ve enjoyed featuring some of the unusual custom-made campers we’ve seen. In Newport, we spotted this impressive beast.

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Newport is the tallest on the Oregon Coast; at 93 feet tall, it is nearly twice the height as many others. The lens of a lighthouse is responsible for optimizing the projection of light. The first Fresnel lighthouse lens installed in 1822, in France, quickly became the gold standard of all lighthouses. The active Yaquina Head Lighthouse still uses its original, first-generation Fresnel lens, installed in 1868.

At Agate Beach State Recreation Site, in Newport, the waves in the sand look almost like the ocean.

Craig loves to go out at sunset and take pictures. When he does, I take pictures of him. I especially like the haze of sundown at the beach this evening.

The roads of Oregon have a surprise around nearly every corner. We pulled over on the side of the road in Cascadia to stretch our legs and spotted this beautiful area down an embankment. We enjoyed exploring for a few minutes before continuing our journey to Bend.

We enjoyed taking it easy for a few days in the quaint town of Bend. Here, Clay waits for Craig to finish cooking what he believes to be “his” dinner.

We visited the highly recommended High Desert Museum featuring wildlife, history and art of the western high desert. The otters were a fun feature.  

The High Desert Museum largely featured the Native Americans of this area. I found this photo and caption especially interesting, perhaps because I never saw an Indian Chief driving an automobile. Early twentieth-century photographers often placed Native Americans in automobiles to show the contrast between the old and new eras. Some Plateau Indians, such as this wealthy Nez Perce family, owned cars and made the best of the changing times. Courtesy Library of Congress

There could never be too many photos taken of Crater Lake. The pictures all look like they’ve been augmented, but the lake is absolutely as blue in person as it is in the photos. Crater lake is a collapsed volcano that formed the deepest lake in America. (1949 feet deep). There are no inlets from other water sources, so the lake only contains rain and snowfall, making it one of the cleanest and clearest lakes in the world.

With an annual average of 43 feet of snowfall, Crater Lake is one of the snowiest places in the US. That’s equivalent to almost 1.5” of snow every day of the year! Crater Lake was established as a National Park in May 1902.

Remotely located away from the light pollution of nearby cities, Crater Lake is an excellent place for astrophotography. Craig took this picture of the Milky Way over Crater Lake one night.

We drove over an hour to visit Sea Lion Caves, “America's largest sea cave and the year-round home of the Steller sea lion.” Discovered in 1880, the land was later sold to R.E. Clanton in 1927, who recognized a good tourist trap when he saw one. Three years later when the state planned to run Route 101 right by the property, Clanton and two business partners were all-in to build an access tunnel to the cave from the land above. A 1500-foot trail was excavated by hand into the face of the cliff, and they’ve been open for business ever since. As you can see, we are in the cave, but there are no sea lions.

As Sea Lions Cave’s website explains, “Sea lions are not always in the Cave. They are wild animals and we are not a zoo so these protected animals come and go as they please. When spring breeding and birthing time arrives, the sea lions will move to the rock ledges outside the Cave and will remain there through the summer.” Since this was the case on the day of our visit, we looked down from a high cliff, and it seemed instead of observing sea lions, we were looking at slugs. Loud, barking slugs.

While at Sea Lion Caves, Craig photographed Heceta Head Lighthouse. Heceta goes on record as being the brightest lighthouse in Oregon, and is now also used as a Bed and Breakfast.

First erected 1936, the iconic welcome sign hanging over Route 101 in North Bend was sentimental to its residents, but the cherished sign was in disrepair with only a portion of the lights working. As a rule, Oregon no longer allows neon welcome signs, but in the spirit of history and sentiment, they made an exception for this town. In 2011, the state permitted its residents to install a new, $50,000 replica of the original, and the tradition now lives on.

In North Bend, I thought the large sand dunes away from water were remarkable. Also interesting how the trees grow out of the dunes.

Coos Bay had a string of state parks clustered together, each offering a different feature. At Cape Arago State Park, we discovered this beautiful coastal area. This is clearly no Georgia state park!

To our amazement, just to the right of Craig in the photo above, at Simpson Reef Overlook, were seals and sea lions. Free, local, and close enough to look life-size, sea lions.

Later down the road, we saw piles and piles of sea lions and seals out on various rocks.

Shore Acres State Park had some of the most breathtaking shorelines as pictured here, and in the cover photo of this blog.

Shore Acres State Park also featured a dreamy botanical garden.

Interesting Monkey Puzzle Tree at the Shore Acres State Park Botanical Gardens.

One of Craig’s sunset photos from Sunset Bay State Park.

From Sunset Bay State Park, we can see Cape Arago Lighthouse. In operation from 1934-2006, this smaller-scale lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places but is not open to the public, and is encircled in a fence so that no one can approach it.

Gold Beach is located on the Pacific coast where the Rogue River feeds into the ocean, a couple of hours north of the California state line. This beach/river town was named so in the 1850s when hundreds of mines at the mouth of the river rendered gold. This historical town also has one of the only two remaining mail boat delivery routes in the US.🚤 📫 We’re almost to California! Redwood Forest, here we come!

Exploring Oregon!